The graphic performance is fairly good but there are however still some quirks, as e.g. some KDE Desktop effects (3D cube etc.) are not working.

I have already played around with the settings like changing the Composite Type in KDE and enabling/disabling the various Gallium related use-flags for mesa.

However, I am not fully satisfied yet, so I wanted to ask all other users out there who have such graphics about the settings they use. In particular I am interested in the VIDEO_CARDS settings and the use-flags you have enabled/disabled for the related packages.

Thanks for your feedback....

CHL_________________The difficulty in designing something completely foolproof, is not to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

I would definitively set USE="sna". There seems to be something happening when running USE="-sna".
For the desktop cube effects, try setting OpenGL instead of XRender._________________First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

I am already running xf86-video-intel-2.18.0 with USE="sna" enabled. Moreover, I use mesa-8.0.1 and rendering in KDE is set to OpenGL instead of XRender.

However, my problem had completely different cause which I accidentally found out now.

In order to activate the 3D effects, it is not sufficient to enable them in the System Settings under "Configure Desktop Effects". I also had to enable them under "window behavior" and respectively "desktop behaviour".

Sometimes its hard to see see the wood for the trees.....

CHL_________________The difficulty in designing something completely foolproof, is not to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.